I recently had the opportunity to share Restorative Yoga with Mindful Magazine’s Senior Editor, Kelle Walsh.

After our session we sat down to talk about — the healing conditions that we cultivate for our body, mind and spirit – when we allow our bodies to be held, completely, by the support that is underneath our body and allow our breath to flow freely through us.

This meeting turned into a featured article in this month’s Issue of Mindful Magazine. Here is just a short teaser of a deep and beautiful exploration of the practice that Kelle shares from her own experience.

I’m not normally so observant of my breath. But I’m following Jillian Pransky’s voice, a bit raspy, slow and clear and incredibly relaxing. She’s guiding me through her signature Deep Listening practice, which, in this moment, I could honestly describe as liquefying. As in, it feels like my muscles have separated from my bones and both are suspended in some viscous substance, my mind contentedly floating alongside.

I’ve come to meet Pransky to experience her body-based relaxation system that blends yoga, mindfulness, and somatic awareness into a delicious low-tech stew—a nourishing and welcome response to our hyper-connected and overstimulated lives. It might just be the antithesis of popular modern yoga styles—no overheated room, no endless Chaturangas-to-Up-Dog vinyasas, no orders to inhale! exhale!

The more familiar we are with how and where we hold tension, the easier it is to notice “how we are closing down or opening up to the current conditions in our lives,” Pransky says.

Whether we consciously choose to hold tension or our bodies and minds do it for us, when we do, Pransky says, we feel in control. “When we relax, we feel vulnerable.”

Tension becomes our armor, holding the fear, worry, and vulnerability at bay. But eventually, inevitably, it fails us. With stress hormones coursing through our bloodstream, as we hold ourselves so tightly to stay “safe” that we forget to take a deep breath, we’re just one fender bender, one work crisis, one sad and senseless loss away from falling apart. That’s when we get sick. Or stop sleeping through the night. Or blow our stack at someone we love, or suffer a panic attack and become afraid to live our lives.

Before we can release tension, however, we have to know where we hold it. And it’s not always obvious where it resides, Pransky says. “We’re so used to living with it, we think we are relaxed while, in fact, we are still harboring tension.”

Lying with my head and back supported by a bolster, my mind idly following my breath as it moves through my limp body, I’m suddenly aware of a sensation of opening deep in my core, and something seems to shift within. As my breath sinks into this new space, I feel a sense of sadness. I feel how weary I am. I’ve been traveling for almost two weeks, and it’s been emotional, visiting with older family members and coming face-to-face with how much has changed, and how much more change is still to come. I’ve spent hours on planes and trains and in cars, and I haven’t done any yoga or much exercise at all. I’m ready to go home, but some things there too are uncertain. I miss my dog.

“Just welcome the breath,” Pransky is saying, and as the emotions fill me, I’m grateful for this guidance. I touch the sadness lightly with my breath, exploring its shape and size, its texture and density. After what could be a few moments or an hour, it starts to grow lighter, thinner, and more transparent, until…it’s gone. I feel lighter, my mind suddenly alert, yet my body is still deeply relaxed.

Wow.

This experience is why Pransky is a proponent of pairing mindfulness with somatic awareness. When we engage in restorative poses, opening the anatomy and welcoming the breath deeply into the body, we not only trigger the relaxation response, we uncover those deeper areas of tightness and holding. And as we just notice, just rest, just listen, we offer ourselves a great kindness that makes us feel cared for. “It sends our mind a signal that right now, in this moment, we’re OK,” she says.

She describes it like a plane coming in for a landing. Before the plane can touch down, the pilot needs to receive a message: “Welcome! It’s safe to land here.”

Having the embodied sense of being supported by the ground, of being safe in our own bodies, we can start to lay down the armor of tension. “And our mind can begin to shift into a new conversation: ‘I’m OK here on the ground.’”

This is where Deep Listening becomes a tool for life. We’re building resilience “over time, making more space and capacity to stay open with whatever arises.”

Upcoming Events

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This class is a great opportunity to connect and weave together a support system with other Mammas. We will explore the different changes and embrace body awareness. The yoga poses and connecting with your breath[...]

Upcoming Events

Yoga for You | Sundays, 10:00-11:00AM Sunday. Yoga. You. Three words that go together like peas and carrots…and potatoes. 😉 Get the most out of your Sunday and join Jennie for this fun and encouraging[...]

Jill Bartine, M.M., RYT Jill Bartine has been a teacher for more than half her life. As a classically-trained flutist who performs with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, her first outlet for her teaching passion was[...]

RESTORATIVE YIN YOGA with Becky Maze, RYT-500 Restorative Yin yoga is a passive series of poses held for 3-5 minutes each. These poses target the deep connective tissues of the body and the fascia that[...]

Slow. Steady. Strong. Take charge of Monday with a rejuvenating yoga class that guides you on a mental and physical journey through slow, calming flows and inspiring poses to support you for the rest of[...]

Mondays at Noon – Yoga 4 EveryBODY with Cheri In this class you will be introduced to the teachings of yoga through physical movement, mediation, breath work and inspiration. This class is perfect for anyone[...]

Hatha Thai Yoga with David Morgan This gentle-to-moderate yoga experience offers traditional yoga postures with Thai-style assists to cleanse and activate the energy body. Perfect for yoga beginners as well as athletes, desk-sitters, and others[...]

Introduction to Chen Style Tai Chi $120 for the 8-week series beginning May 6, 2019 You are invited to join Lao Shi (“Teacher”) Russell Sauls in the practice of traditional Chen Village Style Tai Chi.[...]

This class is a great opportunity to connect and weave together a support system with other Mammas. We will explore the different changes and embrace body awareness. The yoga poses and connecting with your breath[...]